When life blows up your well-laid plans

Job loss, business failure, involuntary retirement, divorce, disability or the death of a breadwinner — these are just some of the ways our finances can force us to come up with a Plan B. That’s never as simple as downloading a list and ticking off completed assignments, however.

Checklists can be helpful, for instance when you’ve just been laid off. But the biggest task after financial loss may be dealing with your emotions after the future you had envisioned disappears. In my latest for the Associated Press, how to handle the unexpected bumps in the road.